Berkley Center

When my family visited me in mid-October we went to a pub on Baggot Street in the middle of Dublin that is renowned for its local music. When we were there, we encountered a large group of people singing at a long table and my mom and I asked someone next to us who they were. The lady, named Deirdre, told us that they were a Norwegian choir visiting for a local concert. Deirdre was part of a Dublin community choir called Dolce that invited them to sing in a joint concert two nights prior. She said that her choir was now preparing for a Christmas concert and that I’d be more than welcome to join them for the next two months to practice and perform at the concert. I loved the idea of jumping into a local group for a few weeks before I had to go home, and so I contacted them via email as soon as I got home that evening.

Ever since I’ve arrived in Dublin I’ve been trying to get a grasp on exactly what Ireland’s role is in this increasingly globalized world. A tiny nation with a rich history, Ireland has experienced more than its fair share of social and economic upheaval for a developed Western European state. Massive growth in the 1990s and early 2000s seemed to indicate that Ireland was poised to become a global financial leader, yet the collapse of this “Celtic Tiger” of an economic machine has since stifled such thoughts.

Furthermore, in its attempts to grow and prosper, the government implemented fiscal policy in such a way that made Ireland an extremely attractive place to do business. In 1998, the government proposed a corporate tax rate of only 12.5 percent. Foreign investment shot up when this was implemented in 2003, and ever since then Ireland has ranked near the top of most independent companies’ globalization indexes. For instance, Ernst and Young’s 2010 index has Ireland second out of all countries, trailing only Hong Kong. With globalization has come an influx of foreign workers and overall connections with outside cultures. This was already an inevitability with the ease of traveling between European countries and the historical ties with the United Kingdom, but Ireland has accelerated on this course over the past decade or so.

The unseen effect on this has been a rising struggle for the Irish to hold on to their culture. Whether it’s something seemingly banal as older generations deriding today’s youth for choosing to drink Heineken (Dutch) and Carlsberg (Danish) beers instead of Guinness or a loss of the old folklore and music, there are traces of this shift everywhere. When I went to my first rehearsal for Dolce, I was surprised to find that I was the youngest person in this choir of almost 40 by about 20 years. At first I was nervous, yet I soon found both the men and women to be extremely warm and welcoming. Many had relatives in the United States and asked what I was studying in Dublin. When I told them that I was an Economics major, they smiled politely, but when I spoke of also studying the Irish language, Irish folklore, and Irish history, they lit up and asked how much I enjoyed it and what my favorite parts were.

On the other hand, I don’t get that reaction from the Irish students I speak to. There’s little enthusiasm for the language, and while my economics courses are populated almost entirely by Irish students, my Celtic studies and folklore classes are much more international in their makeups. Is this a problem though? This is the central question I’ve been struggling with. For Ireland to prosper and flourish in the twenty-first century it does have to globalize. It has to have robust trade and connections with other countries in Europe and beyond. With only four and a half million people and a small land area of which not much is fertile, Ireland has done a commendable job of specializing over the past two decades to be competitive. Yes, they are struggling now with high unemployment and the aftereffects of a housing crisis, but they are better positioned to make a strong recovery than the Greek, Spanish, or Italian economies that have experienced similar issues over the last five years.

But is it too steep a price to pay? Will the culture disappear or be marginalized beyond recognition if Ireland goes all in on globalization? For a visitor like me, I haven’t felt more welcomed than I have when I was invited to join Dolce and subsequently attended rehearsal, and so the idea of this frightens me. On the other hand, to think that a culture that has evolved and adapted over the better part of two millennia and remains stubbornly vibrant could vanish is a bit extreme. Ireland’s place in the twenty-first century has yet to be determined, but I believe that as long as it pushes for a more global approach while also being careful to respect and cherish its own unique character, it can look forward to a strong future.